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Until the mid-1990s, email correspondence was commonly done inline, with responses interwoven through the email. This was due in part to the structure of Usenet newsgroups, where inline replies were standard in discussions. However, top-posting in email eventually became more common, a shift often attributed to email programs like Microsoft's Outlook Express that set the editing cursor and signature on top of the body of an email instead of at the conclusion.

1.

Open your Gmail account by going to Google.com and selecting "Gmail" from the overhead menu. Open an email and click "Reply." You will see that your email has a solid unbroken line along the left side. If one or more replies have been made, the email will have additional lines next to the replies. If all replies have been top-posted, the original email will be nested deepest. If replies have been inline or bottom-posted, the original email will be at the top.

2.

To reply inline and retain formatting of the original email, simply break the solid line along the side of the email. Place your cursor where you wish to reply. Click on the "Enter" key to break the line and start typing. To respond to a different section of text, simply repeat these actions.

3.

To reply inline in a traditional format instead, click on "Plain Text" above the body of the email to strip formatting within the email and make any indents with chevrons (the ">" symbol) and turn all text to plain text. The number of chevrons indicate the level of responses. Place your cursor where you wish to respond, click on the "Enter" key and start typing.

Tips

If you choose to use plain text, read the original email first to ensure you don't miss content that was originally present in the formatted text, such as a photo or chart embedded in the email or special emphasis made by colored text or a different font.

Whether you reply in plain or formatted text, multiple replies can make an email messy and complicated. Consider trimming the email to the part you wish to address. If you feel it's necessary, you can type "[...]" or "" to mark where you deleted text.

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About the Author

Laurie Swenson is a longtime Minnesota journalist. She was a reporter/copy editor for the "Bemidji Pioneer" from 2004-2013 and the sports editor of the "Crookston (Minn.) Daily Time"s from 1992-2003. She has won several Minnesota Newspaper Association awards, including first place for an arts and entertainment article in 2012.